Amazon fell on their rumps today!!!!!

[Ken Shoemaker]

Gents,

I think I failed in my original post.

When I recieved the box of clamps I and realized there were some missing, I went to the packing slip where I read "This completes your order" and additionally, it stated that there was 1 of 1 sent. I then went to the Amazon site and found the order was indeed 1 of 1. I looked at all the labels on the box and in only one place it stated that there was 1 of 1 sent but the lable (from Bessy) shows the entire clamps set and description.

I then call CS asking whether or not the order is shipped in two boxes, the answer was was "I don't know, but it only shows one was sent with this order so you should have them all".

And I publicly appoligized to Amazon for my outburst. I am building a bookcase for my dughter for her first Christmas in her new house. I was really counting on this project and everything that goes into it to make this project successful so a minor thing like this is the catylist to make me crazy.

Again I appoligize to Amazon and and all you guys for that little "meltdown". I know they will make it right.

Sometimes, I suck!!!!

[Glenn Clabo]

Sometimes, I suck!!!!

Nope...you are just human. AND you are big enough to admit it...

[Ellen Benkin]

I just (yesterday) got the wrong item from a mailorder company. The routine -- pack it up and leave it by the front door and the shipping company will pick it up. Call Amazon and talk to someone higher up. I'm sure the "customer service agent" had the wrong script.

[James Mudler]

Don't do anything yet Ken!

I ordered the same set of clamps a few months back. They come packed in two boxes. One of the boxes is longer to accomodate the longer clamps. The box you received has a Bessey label on it, correct? Amazon isn't packing these into larger boxes and you know Bessey didn't get it wrong.

I'd pull up the tracking info to double check if there is another box associated with the tracking number. My guess is that the second box (with the same tracking number) will show up tomorrow.

Same here - two shipments, two weeks apart.

I give mail order houses a genuine attempt to make it right. My next step is calling the bank and within 48 hours the mail order shop makes it right.

[Lee Hingle]

Ken,
I don't think you owe anybody an apology. Your expressing the same frustrations many (including me) would. You deserve to have the item delivered to your house (or business) right THE FIRST TIME without having to ship stuff back, etc.

I'll give you guys a little example: I run a cabinet shop out of my home. I am in the middle of a rather large job. I try to order all of the things I will need as soon as I get my deposit from the customer so they will come in before I need them. I ordered 1 column from Matthew Burak (tablelegs.com) had it split in half, and some ogee bracket feet. They sent the order to an address I used 4 years ago (my former work address) even though I typed the correct shipping address in online and received an email confirmation stating the address I specified (my home). I discovered the mistake when tracking the package. They had UPS turn the package around in route and redirect it to me. I can't tell you what a headace that has been in addition to the fact that it delayed the package 9 days. Oh, and the $350 order I placed from hardware house for ball bearing drawer slides? Wrong too. They sent wrong size slides (22") for the bathroom slides I ordered (the cabinets are built and they are 21" deep). They warehouse guy had the nerve to ask me if I could still use them so he would not have to ship me the new ones. And, go ahead and ship us the wrong ones back and we'll credit your account. Yeah right, no thanks. Send a prepaid label.
Whew! Now I feel better.
Lee

[David Weaver]

I have had the same problem with amazon...twice. My rule for ordering things from them now is that they have to be shipped from a partner, or they have to be something that you can explain to someone who doesn't speak english as a first language.

When I ordered the entire grip tite system this past year, I received a box that was marked with the right tag, but the box was the size of a small box of chocolates. I got one grip tite featherboard thing (about the size of a soda can for the uninitiated), but the box said the whole kit was there.

Given that the small single featherboard was labeled with the label for the whole system, I figured that if I sent it back, I would get the wrong thing again because someone would go scan the tag and send me what matches the system information - which is the tag. Anyone with a brain would've realized that a 42-inch steel fence won't fit in an 8 inch square box.

For the life of me, I couldn't explain it to three different people from india on CS, and just let them do the deal where they'd send me another. Of course, the second time, the same thing happened. An 8x8 inch box with one featherboard in it, marked saying that it contained 2 of them and a 42 inch steel fence.

So I called them again, and they paid to have it sent back (of course - i"m not paying for that) and said they didn't know whether or not there was a problem, but that I was barred from trying to get the right thing after sending a product back twice (as in, their policy takes the position that I'm wasting their time). Not a big deal, I guess - except for the two weeks that I wanted to use the whole grip-tite system for a project (which was a big deal to me). After they finally credited my account for the second one when I sent it back, I clipped a Rockler 25% off coupon out of a flyer and drove 2 miles down the road to Rockler and got the correct item.

No more of that. Their CS policies might be good, but the actual communication with the agents isn't good enough to get anything done if you're talking about something they don't have familiarity with (and people in india don't have familiarity with grip tites - even when looking at the picture).

Getting my table saw from them was an unneeded adventure, too - nobody knew where it was when only the fence showed up.

I'd say I've probably gotten 20 things from Amazon, and getting them wrong 10% of the time isn't acceptable.

[Tim Marks]

I'd say I've probably gotten 20 things from Amazon, and getting them wrong 10% of the time isn't acceptable.

Well, my family has placed 57! orders with them this year, which is pretty typical for the past 5 years. Given, most of those are books. I pretty much outfitted an entire shop from them, and in all this time I have only had TWO problems (where UPS dropped heavy machinery). In both cases (DW735 and Jet ceiling air filter), there was a replacement sitting on my doorstep 2 days later.

Amazon rocks in my experience. The two problems that I had were not their fault, yet they used overnight shipping to send replacements (it was near Christmas). That makes my experience with them 0% failures in probably 600 orders. Maybe you should try them again.

[Don Bullock]

I haven't had any problems with Amazon yet. They did, however, ship my SCMS loose in the box. I was amazed at how poorly it was packed. Fortunately it was accurate right out of the box. For once the USPS did a good job with the shipping of a large item even though they made me pick it up at the Post Office rather than delivering it to my house.

[Justin Bukoski]

In the future if you have to have something sent back like that, just tell them to send you a shipping label and to schedule a pickup at your house. It should be no more inconvenient to you than putting it back in the box.

[Ken Shoemaker]

Finally, this mess has come to an end after a 2 hour call to Customer Service (off shore). It's such a long painful story, i won't bore you with it but trust me, my original post it far more accurate than I could now imagine.

At the end of the day, I got what I paid for after a week.

[Stan Smith]

I,too, have outfitted most of my shop from Amazon. Since outsourcing, I think that packing quality has gone downhill. I've had a few damaged shipments over the years and that damage was caused by UPS. I do recall making a return once and they offered the pickup tag to me. I don't like having to get some things from vendors separate from Amazon. I wasn't paying attention recently and ordered an item where the shipping is in excess of the item's cost--and it's a very small item. Offshore CS is a fact of life for all of us now. I, too, long for the good ol' days but those times are long gone.